


days like these lead to

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Series: Week Two: AU [7]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Team Bonding, canon to my stories in particular now just... just assume its happening, i think this particular akuma dodging thing is just
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-01 23:50:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20266570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: The akuma avoidance rotation is Carapace's idea.Adrien misses the initial plan, but at some point Carapace told Ladybug that something had upset Rena Rouge badly enough that he'd been with her all day keeping an eye out for butterflies, and that means the four of them end up meeting up at the Seine that night to-To hang out.  To spend time together.To do exactly what Adrien's always wished he could do with his friends.This isn't exactly what he'd pictured, but he can't deny how happy he is to have it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> for the 'akumatized' prompt for adrienaugreste, thanks for the beta shinobicyrus!

The akuma avoidance rotation is Carapace's idea.

Adrien misses the initial plan, but at some point Carapace told Ladybug that something had upset Rena Rouge badly enough that he'd been with her all day keeping an eye out for butterflies, and that means the four of them end up meeting up at the Seine that night to-

To hang out. To spend time together.

To do exactly what Adrien's always wished he could do with his friends.

This isn't exactly what he'd pictured, but he can't deny how happy he is to have it.

For once they can be together and _ relax_. He isn't sure how Ladybug justified bringing out Carapace and Rena's Miraculous tonight (he isn't sure how he feels about Carapace and Rena Rouge apparently knowing each other's civilian identities, but then they _ are _ out a lot less often than he and Ladybug are), but Chat Noir is having a lot of fun as he and Carapace toss the turtle hero's shield back and forth like a Frisbee. Twice they accidentally send it soaring out over the river and both times Ladybug's yo-yo shoots out just in time to haul it back.

Rena is trying to play her flute. Trying, because she says she's never learned any instrument, much less flute, and that it feels weird to have it and not really know how to play it.

"You play it to use Mirage, though," Carapace says, confused, watching Rena fumble on her flute.

"I don't know if you noticed this, Carapace, but we do a whole lot of magic in these fancy suits," Rena says dryly. "I don't actually _ know _ how to play. Mirage just kind of- happens."

Carapace catches his shield again and turns to sling it towards Ladybug, who leaps and snags it easily before hurling it back to Chat Noir. He deflects it off his baton instead of catching it this time, curious, and then winces in dismay as it sails wildly off course and nearly hits Rena in the back of the head before Ladybug's yo-yo snaps out after it again. 

"Maybe we should all try swapping weapons for practice sometime," Ladybug says, snickering as Chat Noir frowns and checks his staff over for damage. Their weapons are nearly indestructible, but _ nearly _ doesn't mean _ completely_, and Carapace's shield might be the strongest of them. 

His baton is fine, except for a few small scratches. He knows it'll be fixed after their next fight anyway but he still breathes a sigh of relief.

Ladybug tosses the shield to Rena Rouge, who gets a sudden mischievous glint in her eye. She drops to the ground, balances the shield across her knees, and starts drumming on it with her flute.

"You know these aren't toys, right?" Carapace asks her, just as Chat Noir shortens his staff and hands it to her so that Rena can have two drumsticks.

"Um." Ladybug holds up her yo-yo, letting it drop from her hand and swing back and forth briefly. "Carapace, I have some bad news for you about that."

Moments later an akuma alert rings out from their communicators. 

The alerts didn't use to come through their comm system, because it's mostly magic and therefore not patched in to the main system unless they're the ones making an outgoing call, but Rena especially has turned out to be a natural at getting their weapons/accessories to do what they need them to. Alerts sound through all of their communicators now.

Ladybug checks it first while Rena hastily hands back weapons. 

Ladybug groans and drops her yo-yo back to her hip, rubbing at her forehead with both hands. "We probably should have expected this one. I should have _ thought _ of this one."

"Why, exactly?" Rena asks suspiciously.

Carapace is frowning, but suddenly his face lights with realisation and he groans too. "It's Chloe, isn't it."

Adrien looks forlornly at their meeting site. They've picked up any debris already, but they'd eaten together before he and Carapace had started playing catch. He'd spent the meal squashed in next to Ladybug after Carapace insisted on sitting beside Rena Rouge and they'd all shared and stolen each other's food. If Rena had been in danger of akumatization at first, she hasn't been for at least a couple of hours now.

But that means there's been plenty of time for people to see them laughing and enjoying themselves. Plenty of time for people to take pictures and upload them to the Ladyblog.

Plenty of time for people to wonder why Queen Bee isn't with them. 

It's not that hard, talking down Chloe this time. She doesn't really seem to have much of a goal beyond 'find the other Miraculous wielders and demand to be included.' She ignores and talks back to Hawkmoth when he asks for the ring and earrings.

"You know," Carapace says to Adrien, holding Shellter over them both as the nearby Arc de Triomphe crumbles down. Adrien's starting to wonder how many times they've inadvertently destroyed innocent cultural landmarks. It's always temporary, but it still seems impolite at the very least. "Is it weird that I'm like, lowkey annoyed he never wants _ my _ Miraculous? My Miraculous is rad, too."

"You know he wants ours for a specific _ reason_, right?" Chat Noir says, circling around behind the force shield and eyeing the run-up to Chloe. The building is about to fall on her from one side and Rena's illusionary net is closing in on her from the other, so if he bolts at the right time and manages to dodge her hail of poisoned darts (she's apparently taken her Venom ability to heart) then he'll be able to get to her akuma easily. “Besides, do you really want all this attention?”

He's not even sure where Chloe found a Frisbee. He can't picture her owning one. 

"I know, it's still annoying," Carapace mutters, lowering his actual shield for Chat Noir to step up and balance carefully on. 

Carapace drops Shellter and uses his shield to boost Chat Noir's momentum as they both fling him through the air at Chloe.

Adrien's claws catch on the Frisbee right away, knocking it out of her hands and to the ground where Rena Rouge stomps on it and watches as the butterfly flutters out of the resulting crack. Rena's eyes narrow and she reaches for the butterfly, drawing back at the last minute as it banks abruptly for her, and it's only when Ladybug's yo-yo shoots past to grab the akuma that Adrien remembers they'd gone out to try and prevent _ Rena's _ akumatization in the first place. 

They make sure to include Chloe, after that. 

Chloe turns out to be the one who needs their akuma avoidance routine the second most often, right after Chat Noir himself, and most of the others never know just how often Chat Noir needs it. He's been going to Ladybug for this long. He loves and eagerly looks forward to the group gatherings, but his devotion to Ladybug hasn't diminished any, and she can read his mood more easily than the others.

Sometimes, when he shows up for patrol with a sick feeling in his stomach or his heart pounding so loud in his ears that he can't find the words to tell her what he needs, Ladybug asks him to wait for her and goes and comes back with Carapace now. Sometimes she stays with him instead. Sometimes she fetches Rena Rouge first, then leaves again for the rest of their teammates. No matter what she always seems to know exactly what will help the most. 

And some nights Adrien arrives in a good mood himself and then notices a tightening in Ladybug's eyes behind her mask, a tenseness in her spine that makes her sprints and leaps stiffer than usual, and offers to go and get Queen Bee himself. 

Sometimes Ladybug is very, very adamant that he _ not _ do that and simply spends a longer time patrolling with him instead. Those are the nights they don't make it home until late the next morning.

Those are the nights Adrien thinks of fiercely when his own mood plummets and he's somewhere he can't get away, like a photo shoot or fencing.

Eventually they leave Rena's Miraculous with her. It's a little more complicated with Wayzz, and it's not safe for Chloe to keep Pollen with her yet, but Rena Rouge they can manage and Master Fu agrees- Rena was the first of them to need the protection of a shared patrol.

Strangely enough the group meetings don't make it onto the Ladyblog very often. Adrien thinks maybe Alya is respecting their privacy; that they're keeping each other's spirits up isn't a secret and isn't hard to figure out, and from there it's fairly easy to extrapolate why. It's very shortly not an uncommon arrangement for people to have- Adrien's own class has an akuma rotation worked out, and so does the art club. More than a few of his classmates are in both groups and Max has arranged a group chat for the same purpose. They have an alert specifically for anyone who's worried about being an immediate target for akumatization and pre-arranged meeting places. 

Adrien doesn't use it much, only just enough to allay any suspicion, because he'd rather go to Ladybug. He's seen how effective it is, though. Alix, Rose, and Juleka are the most reliable people to meet after sending out the alert, and Juleka often brings her brother along because he's good at calming people down, but almost all of the class have taken turns showing up. He doesn't think the alert's ever been sounded without _ someone _ showing up, even if it's the middle of the night. 

Sometimes people do slip through. Sometimes Adrien still finds himself fighting his friends.

But it's far less often, and after that first slip-up with Chloe it's never his teammates.

And, thanks to finding himself in multiple prevention groups- he ends up in the art group's rotation as well, somehow- it's never _ him _.

He's more relieved for that than he thinks anyone but Ladybug will ever truly understand.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the 'fencing' prompt for adrienaugreste 
> 
> thank you shinobicyrus!

"Incoming!" Rena Rouge yells, and Chat Noir has just enough warning to dodge Carapace's shield as it goes ricocheting off the walls in the narrow corridor.

"We don't have enough light down here," Queen Bee complains, flipping her hair back with a pout. "Whose idea was this, again?"

"Mine," Ladybug says mildly, letting Chat Noir know she's behind him with a hand on his shoulder before stepping past to pick up the shield. She hands it off to Chat Noir right away. "The parks were too exposed, Queen Bee, you know that. We have to battle an akuma _ every time _ we try to train outside."

"Technically, still training," Rena points out, tapping her flute against her leg. Chat Noir frowns at her, even knowing she can't see him. If she has Carapace's shield, Carapace _ should _ have her flute, but clearly that isn't the case. "It's just, you know, field training instead."

Queen Bee's spinning top comes flying towards him from Carapace's general direction and Chat Noir deflects it with the shield, sending it into the wall with enough force to start cracks spreading. He winces. "Uh, LB?" 

She sighs. "Do you all promise not to destroy the catacombs for five minutes while I fix that?"

There's a chorus of grumbled responses.

Ladybug rolls her eyes and plucks the top from the wall, tossing it back to Queen Bee. "Good enough. Lucky Charm!"

The whole team crowds around her, trying to see what the charm is. Chat Noir is for once the only one _ not _ edging closer to her, since his night vision gives him such an advantage in the tunnels.

It's about the only thing he likes about training in the catacombs.

Well- one of the only things. 

The charm's a squirt bottle. Rena Rouge leans in and squints at it, frowning. "Okay, why is-"

Ladybug lifts it and squirts her full in the face, cackling.

Rena sputters and wipes water from her hair and mask, ears flicking in agitation. "Okay, not fair! _ Carapace _threw it, and Chat Noir's the one who hit the wall with it!"

"Carapace was supposed to have your flute at the time, and Chat Noir is using another teammate's weapon the way we're _ all _ supposed to be practising," Ladybug reminds her, before abruptly squirting Queen Bee as well. 

"What did _ I _ do?" Chloe complains, even though she'd actually managed to dodge in time.

"Chloe," Rena Rouge says mildly, and Queen Bee turns to scowl at her. "Remember when this was about fencing? Remember when this was _ supposed to be _ about fencing, because Carapace wanted Chat Noir to teach him? Remember _ how many butterflies we had to fight off_, because _ you _ got jealous, _ again- _"

"Okay, enough!" Queen Bee's scowl has deepened and she's directing it at the floor. She sniffs, loudly. "I was never jealous of _ those two_, anyway."

Chat Noir and Ladybug exchange a look. 

He believes Chloe; he doesn't think she'd cared at all about him teaching Carapace some tricks. He _ does _ think that the akuma were drawn to her when she'd heard Ladybug praising the idea. 

At least she hadn't been akumatised. Very few butterflies had reached her at all, and even the ones that _ had _ ended up flying right back off. Ever since Chloe's realised that it's _ possible _ to tell Hawkmoth to shut up and go away she's hardly missed a chance to do so. 

"Actually, I just didn't think it was fair to only spray _ one _ of you," Ladybug admits, and then sprays Carapace and Chat Noir in quick succession.

Chat Noir hisses and blows his dripping bangs out of his face and gives her a hurt look. "My Lady."

"Sorry, kitty," she says, laughing and reaching out to gently brush his hair back from his eyes. "You _ are _ the one who broke the wall, though. Again."

"I'm _ destruction_," Chat Noir protests, though his lips are twitching in a smile as he leans into her hand with a purr. His ears flick contentedly. 

"Okay, you two should stop before Chloe gets akumatised again," Rena says, loudly, and Chat Noir whines a little as Ladybug pulls away.

"I have to use the Lucky Charm, kitty," Ladybug says gently. 

Behind her, Bee is hissing, "It's _ Queen Bee, _ foxface," at Rena Rouge, and she only barely misses being clocked in the head by Ladybug's tossed charm. Considering Chat Noir is very much aware of how good his partner's aim is, that doesn't seem accidental. 

The ladybug swarm repairs the passage, and Ladybug retreats down a side tunnel to recharge and retransform. 

"Well," Carapace says with a sigh, picking his way gingerly over to Chat Noir and then sliding to sit down with his back to the wall. "That's one advantage of the murder tunnels, anyway."

Chat Noir takes a seat next to Carapace, passing his shield back to him. "Yeah. We'd never really gotten to _ practise _with our powers before now. There's so many convenient places to transform down here." He keeps his gaze fixed on Carapace's shield. 

Carapace shifts slightly, then asks, "Hey, can I, like- you don't like cramped spaces, either, do you dude?"

"What makes you say that?" Chat Noir asks uneasily, glad the darkness hides his lashing tail. Somewhere across from them the girls are arguing in low voices, but he's not worried about that. They always do- they'll stop as soon as Ladybug comes back. Or they won't, and she'll throw them into fiercer training as a result.

"I know someone who's pretty claustrophobic. You hide it pretty well, but so does he." Carapace scratches the back of his head, then extends his arm out. "It's okay if this is weird or too forward or something, dude, but I know you and Ladybug are pretty tactile-"

Chat Noir ducks under Carapace's arm before he can finish, pressing close with a sigh of relief. "I don't know if it's weird or not. We've always done it."

"Didn't know if it was a _ you and Ladybug _ thing, dude, or if the rest of us were allowed to join in, too." Carapace's arm tightens around him. "And, uh, kinda wanted to be sure Bee's the only jealous type here."

"I _ heard _ that!" sounds from across the corridor.

"I mean it's _ true _-"

"Shut up, fox!"

Chat Noir decides to ignore that. From the way he settles more comfortably against the wall, Carapace does too. 

"Hey, so you're actually sorta _ really _ good with this already." Carapace nods down at his shield. "Do you even _ need _the practise, dude?"

"Everyone needs practise." Chat Noir's ears flick as he hears Ladybug coming back down the tunnel towards them. 

He doesn't tell Carapace that he and Ladybug still spend patrol finding abandoned warehouses or the hidden places in the parks, that the two of them sometimes spar and practise for hours in between their actual patrol. He doesn't tell Carapace that, actually, he knows that Ladybug already _ does _ know how to fence because she'd asked Chat Noir to teach her. He doesn't mention that he knows how to use her yo-yo, too, that if they were ever in a situation where they really did need to urgently swap weapons the two of them have already planned for it. 

Ladybug reappears in a far corridor, one that Chat Noir is _ sure _ isn't the one she disappeared down. 

(The two of them come down here at night, too, sometimes, because he'd thought that maybe if he spent more time down here _ with _ someone the claustrophobia wouldn't be quite so bad. He was sort of right- he's not really claustrophobic so much as he hates feeling trapped and _ alone_).

"Everyone needs practise," Ladybug echoes with a nod, going over to offer them each a hand up and serenely ignoring Bee and Rena's bickering. "Even us. On that note, let's try this again?"

The sound of bickering escalates to the sound of a real scuffle behind her, and Rena Rouge just barely gets out "Mirage!" before Queen Bee cries "_Subjection!_"

Ladybug sighs, brushing an illusory fox aside as an entire troop of them rush through the tunnels. "Okay, once those two have retransformed we can start again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanted to write something with kagami in it for fencing, but im not satisfied with how i write her yet, so this happened instead


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the 'tropical island' prompt for adrienaugreste! thanks shinobicyrus!

"If you were trapped on a deserted island and could only take five things with, what would you take?" Carapace asks lazily, sprawled out across their picnic blanket and idly tossing a tennis ball into the air. Every once in a while Chat Noir or Rena Rouge bats at it and Ladybug ends up reeling it in with her yo-yo from wherever it's gone flying off to. 

"Carapace," Ladybug says mildly, propping herself up on one elbow to lean over Chat Noir, who only turns trustingly towards her to give her a clearer view of Carapace. "That had better be a hypothetical question."

Carapace sits up and crosses his arms, looking back over Chat Noir at Ladybug. "I mean, when is anything hypothetical any more? We _ could _ always encounter an akuma that teleports everyone to a tropical island. Can't call that any weirder than whatever M. Ramier's deal is."

Chat Noir shrugs, hindered slightly by the way he has both arms crossed behind his head. "I'd bring the team."

"Not people," Carapace and Rena Rouge both reply, voices overlapping, but they both sound more fond than exasperated. 

"Well what's the fun in that?" Chat Noir complains, propping himself up like Ladybug did before, except that Ladybug is still leaning over him so he ends up almost bumping heads with her. "I don't want to be there _ alone_."

There's a pause as the other heroes give each other wary glances, even Queen Bee and Rena, and Adrien winces when he realises that he'd let more emotion into the word _ alone _ than apparently anyone but Ladybug had been prepared for. 

"Thought experiment, kitty," Ladybug reminds him tolerantly, before he can get too caught up in that thought. She drops down again, nudging into his side until he shifts around and eventually ends up with his head pillowed on her stomach. Ladybug reaches down and scratches lightly behind his ears, making his bones feel like they've gone liquid. He nearly doesn't hear the others when they continue, the purring that's started up effectively overtaking any other reaction.

"If you wanted a sensible reaction out of him, that probably wasn't the way to get it," Carapace points out wryly, even as he moves into the spot Chat Noir's vacated and waves Rena after him.

"Okay, assume we're all there together, then." Ladybug ignores the snicker from Queen Bee. So does Adrien, with an effort; he knows Ladybug isn't going to judge him for it, and that's enough. "_Then _ what would you bring?"

"Rope," Rena calls, from Carapace's other side. "A canteen. A book on basic raft building. A pocketknife. A lantern."

"Alcohol," Queen Bee mutters. "Since it's all of us now, _ definitely _ alcohol."

"It was Chat Noir's turn first, guys," Carapace says, exasperated but cheerful. He's twisted up against Chat Noir's side now and therefore Ladybug's as well, not bothering to pretend he's doing anything but hiding from passers-by. People have generally been pretty good about leaving the team alone when they're having team bonding time, but that doesn't mean there isn't still an occasional excited fan with a camera and an eye to appearing on the front page of the Ladyblog.

Alya only posts team photos from people who ask the whole team's permission first, though, and she has an uncanny knack for knowing who'd really asked, who only _ claims _they'd asked, and even who'd asked Ladybug and assumed that counted as asking the rest of the team as well. Chat Noir hadn't expected her to make that last distinction, but he's glad that she has. 

"So?" Ladybug asks, twisting to flick at Chat Noir's bell playfully. "What _ would _you bring, then?"

"Our Miraculous?" Adrien tries, flinching slightly at the nearly-simultaneous groans from the rest of the team. 

"Dude," Carapace says. "Assume we're all there _ and transformed_, then. Pick five _ items_. And not our weapons!" He adds hastily, cutting off the response Adrien had been planning to give. 

Chat Noir deflates with a whine. "So many rules. I don't see why we need anything besides each other and our kwami."

"While that's flattering, kitty," Ladybug says dryly, exchanging a concerned glance with Carapace, "I think Carapace was looking for answers more along the lines of Rena's. Like tents, or a camp stove, or at least _ matches_."

"Or alcohol," Queen Bee mutters again. 

Ladybug rolls her eyes, but amends, "Or food and drink, I guess, although that's really kind of cheating too. The idea is to have the kind of items on you that you can fend for yourself, you know?"

Chat Noir makes a face and snuggles closer to her. "I've got faith in you, though. And the rest of the team," he adds in a hurry, but by then he's heard identical snorts from Queen Bee and Rena both. He can't see them without moving a lot more than he wants to, but he can imagine the annoyed glances they're giving each other at that. "We don't need anything else."

"You can say you've got faith in Ladybug, it's okay," Carapace says, flipping over onto his stomach himself so that he can draw his hood up over his head and block out the light. Chat Noir isn't too sure _ why _ Carapace wants to block the light but then Chat Noir himself is aware by now that if he could get away with it, he'd spend as much of each day as possible lazing in the sun, and that's probably not quite normal either.

"Yeah, it's not like you're the only one." Rena Rouge is the only one of them still mostly upright, her back against a tree as she occasionally nudges Carapace with a foot, apparently just to hear him grumble. "Don't think I didn't notice you mentioning alcohol and then _ nothing else_, Chloe."

"Queen Bee," both Queen Bee and Ladybug remind her, although only Queen Bee sounds at all put out by it.

Rena sniffs. "Anyway, come on. Anyone else have the idea to bring, I don't know, _ actual supplies_?"

"Okay, again, this had _ really _better be theoretical." Ladybug lets her eyes slide shut, though, shifting slightly to bury her hand in Chat Noir's hair again and start scratching. His eyes slide unwillingly shut with a much louder purr. 

"Can we maybe have _ separate _ theoretical islands?" he hears Rena comment, teasingly. "Or, I dunno, at least a large enough one for privacy."

"Gonna second the large enough island idea." Carapace's voice is muffled, his head still buried in his hood, and Chat Noir wonders for the first time if maybe he _ doesn't _ have the only Miraculous that so obviously has traits that hold over between transformations. He knows Ladybug does, but that's only because he's asked her. He would have to learn Rena and Carapace's identities to know for sure whether _ they _ do and he has zero intention of ever asking Chloe.

He's pretty sure her answer would hinge far too heavily on whatever she thinks Ladybug would most like to hear, anyway, judging by how huffy she gets when Ladybug is paying more attention to Chat Noir than to Queen Bee.

Ladybug's been careful to reassure Chat Noir that she would never replace him, and even to repeat it whenever she senses he's struggling with his fear of it again (and about the only thing he appreciates about Sandboy is that he's never had to _ tell _ her about that fear), but even if she hadn't been Queen Bee is not someone he's ever been afraid of losing her attention to. He's seen her reactions to civilian-Chloe too many times for that.

Rena Rouge groans and also flops forward, landing on Carapace's back hard enough to drive an unhappy _ oomph _ out of him. "At this point I feel like we're just gunning for an archipelago. And the guys haven't even answered the original question!"

"It was _ my _ question, I'm allowed to go last," Carapace protests. "And Bee hasn't answered either!"

"Alcohol," Queen Bee reminds him, with another haughty sniff. 

"You can_ not _ just pick alcohol, come on." Even though Adrien can't see him he's sure Carapace is making a face at that. "Also, dude, I think I'm insulted now? Yeah, I'm definitely insulted now."

"By what?" Queen Bee demands. "The insinuation that if I am going to be _ trapped _ in a limited space with all of you I would prefer to have alcohol with us?"

Brightly, Rena Rouge says, "You know there are no closets on an island, right, Chloe?"

There's a long silence after that remark.

Finally Carapace says, "There are like six different things I think you could have meant by that and I do _ not _ know which one it was."

"Who said it was only_ one_?" Rena crosses her arms under her head, lounging across Carapace's back in a mirror of the way Chat Noir is still huddled up with Ladybug. They don't quite all fit in the amount of space they're trying to share by now, meaning that they're all huddled up very much on top of each other. Adrien's glad that the way Ladybug is absently scratching behind his ears gives him excuse enough for how much he's purring already.

"Fine," Queen Bee snaps, and Adrien hears her get up and circle to Ladybug's other side. He's sure if they asked her she'd say it was only to put more distance between herself and Rena, but he's also sure she's done it to get closer to Ladybug. "My five things are Grey Goose, absinthe, gold label champagne, a bottle of _ Château Margaux _ -because _ obviously - _and... how many items does a set of crystal champagne flutes count as?"

"On second thought," Rena says dryly. "Carapace, it is _ definitely _ your turn."

Carapace hums consideringly, then says, "Is flint and steel one object or two?"

"I'd count it as one," Ladybug says thoughtfully. "It would be kind of weird not to, I think."

"Okay." Carapace's arm emerges from beneath his hoodie to start ticking off things on his fingers. "So flint and steel, water purification tablets, a backpack for carryin' stuff, um, one of those space blankets I guess? And can- wait, does a first aid kit count as, like, one thing too, or-"

"I feel like that's pushing it?" Rena says, thoughtfully. "Could pick some of the more important things from one, I guess. I think Ladybug's still got an item left to pick."

"Tourniquet," Ladybugs says immediately. "Carapace, last thing out of a first aid kit, then?"

He makes a disgruntled noise. "Um, I guess either disinfectant or bandages. Wait, can't we just like, assign the rest of the kit to Chat Noir?"

"Nope." Ladybug strokes the back of Adrien's head briefly and giggles as he purrs again, louder. "Think he's doubled down on taking the team with him."

"Unless he's including himself, he still gets to pick something _ no your kwami does not count_." Rena reaches out and tugs gently at his tail. "I'm voting for the bandages, honestly, we can use Chloe's alcohol to disinfect if we gotta."

"Excuse me?" Queen Bee demands.

They don't get any farther with that discussion that day, because they're not _ that _ hard to spot relaxing in the park and that tends to annoy Hawkmoth. The villain he throws at them isn't difficult to defeat, but does mean that they have to split up for the day. Mostly they forget about having had the discussion at all.

A week and a half later, though, when their entire school has found itself transformed into its own tropical island courtesy of a weird-even-by-Hawkmoth's standards villain, Adrien finds himself forcibly reminded.

Maybe they should start restricting _ more _ of their team time to the privacy of the catacombs, after this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im just, gonna keep this marked as incomplete at this point because this already has another two pages and i am kidding myself if i think im not coming back here

**Author's Note:**

> title is from james blunt's 'bonfire heart!'


End file.
